CHAPTER VI.
Thorpe and four others were set to work on this road, which was to be cut through a creek bottom leading, he was told, to "seventeen." The figures meant nothing to him.

Later, each number came to possess an individuality of its own.

He learned to use a double-bitted ax.
Thorpe's intelligence was of the practical sort that wonderfully helps experience.

He watched closely one of the older men, and analyzed the relation borne by each one of his movements to the object in view.

In a short time he perceived that one hand and arm are mere continuations of the helve, attaching the blade of the ax to the shoulder of the wielder; and that the other hand directs the stroke.